hum
by moonlunes
Summary: The royal palace has fallen into enemy hands, and the empire's only prince is forced to run. He and his childhood friend might be practically strangers now, but Taishi isn't about to leave his side. (originally written for a prompt on tumblr but I sort of abandoned the prompt) (borderline KaiMiwa)


Taishi had been trained for combat from the time he was a child, and he knew the steps of the dances made to follow and support the royal style of swordsmanship better than anyone in the empire, no exaggeration - but there's a world of difference between practice and reality, and however long he managed to go avoiding the enemies' blades and arrows, the first time a soldier managed to land a real hit on him (at his side, through pure flesh) he just about passed out on the spot.

He got better at toughing them out (which was both a blessing and a curse, actually, since it meant staying conscious while Kai was pulling arrows out of him more often), but he knew it didn't matter to Kai, who thought Taishi shouldn't be in his fights in the first place.

(He'd woken up alone at more than one inn, and even though he caught up to Kai again and brushed it off with a jab about making him pay for the room every time, they both knew the reason he told Kai to watch while he danced on the streets for coin was so _Taishi _could see _him_.

He doesn't blame him, not really, since the invading forces are only after Kai; even if he ran off now, after months of opposing them, Taishi would probably be no higher concern to them than an average civilian once he weren't by Kai's side. But what was he supposed to do? His prince couldn't even feed himself without Taishi around to earn him the funds for it.)

They came at one point to a small village with no healing herbs and had to ration their remainder, leaving Taishi with one leg still throbbing while he told the innkeeper sorry, pardon us for bringing in such a fuss, we'll try not to trouble you for much longer but since we're not quite fit for travel could you spare us a day or two to recover here? The room fare just about made up for what they were saving on medicine, but Taishi could have paid anything for soft beds right about then.

"Those search parties sure keep getting tougher," he complained aloud as he dropped down with a sigh, bouncing on the mattress springs. Kai made a noise of shallow agreement as he unlaced his boots, the task made more time-consuming with one arm cradled carefully in his lap. "Makes you miss the first little groups they sent after us," Taishi added, though he didn't expect a response, and he didn't get one.

Even after so long, it was hard for them to relax around each other. At one point, they had been best friends, back when the former empress had housed Taishi's troupe in the palace, before her brother the late emperor deemed them distracting and sent them off elsewhere; Toshiki had been more cheerful then, and had admired dancers more than anything else, and Taishi's memories of the two of them clumsily practicing steps together felt like fresh wounds. But years had passed since then, and both of them had grown up without each other, and when Taishi heard news of the palace being taken he went looking for his friend and found a man on the run with a hooded cloak and a false, unfamiliar name. "Kai" didn't smile so much, or talk much, but maybe that was fair, since Taishi, too, had to restrain himself at times from commenting aloud on how much he had changed.

Friends probably would have taken the time to talk and catch up with each other's lives, share where they'd been and what they'd achieved and where they were going, but Taishi knew he had mostly good memories to share, and he figured Kai didn't need to hear anything that sounded like "listen to all these things I gave up on just to follow you into war."

And Kai - Kai spent too much time with a distant, far-off look in his eyes as it was.

(Sometimes Taishi wanted to grab him by the chin and say look _forward_, Toshiki, aren't you going to lead an empire? Do you want us all stuck in a rut like you? But all he learns, over and over, is that he doesn't have the heart to really do it.

And maybe it was his own fault, really, for never managing to shake off his own blind faith in a boy he barely knew anymore.)

So they weren't really friends.

But there was something to be said (even if it might just be how needy they both were) for how well they knew each other's movements and habits, and how Taishi could reach out sometimes and know without looking that Kai would be there, and how every night, whether they managed to buy themselves separate beds or not, he fell asleep facing Kai and knowing Kai was doing the same.

Even at times like this, when Taishi knew Kai would persist on undressing without any help, and so after Taishi finished shedding his dancer's adornments and maneuvered himself under the bed covers he waited for him, stupid and embarrassing as it was, to settle down across the way before allowing himself to drift off.

They didn't use enough healing herbs to set them straight again right away, but even traces sped up the process, and Taishi found he could lean some of his weight on his recovering leg by the very next morning, with a mostly manageable ache of protest. Kai, too, was flexing his fingers open and closed, and gave Taishi a look as flat as ever. It was tempting to say 'what,' and make him ask outright, but Taishi skipped it and answered, "Not just yet, sorry. Give it a little longer and we can be off."

Luckily for the pair, however inhospitable the townspeople felt towards them, they didn't seem to be any friendlier to their pursuers; Taishi watched from the window of their room as the innkeeper gestured impatiently to a group of Stellan soldiers, feeding them false directions and waving them off on their way. "That's gonna get them in trouble later," he remarked, letting out a low whistle of guilty admiration. "Pride of the empire, huh?"

"Patriotic as always," shot Kai from further in the room, out of the window's view. Taishi didn't care to answer, which was apparently fine by Kai, who didn't leave much of a pause before asking, "Which way did he send them?"

"Northbound." Taishi came away from the window and grabbed his earrings off his bed from where he'd hastily tossed them; he'd ditched them to pass for a villager instead of a dancer in case they looked his way, and the absence of them brushed ghost-like at the sides of his neck. "Looks like we have ourselves a day off." He cast Kai a wry glance and quipped, "Want to do something fun?" to no response.

Truthfully, there wasn't much of anything for them to do in a small town where the whole population eyed them with distrust, and even less with their room up a flight of stairs and Taishi favoring an injured leg. He should have been glad for the chance to rest, after so many days of ceaseless travel and combat, but even though Kai rolled over to nap in an instant, Taishi couldn't bring himself to follow suit. He felt tired enough to nap for sure, as he always did these days, but the harder he tried to convince himself to relax the more persistently he felt the unease of war, his whole spine prickling and the taste of bile in his throat.

(He'd been so taken with the child Toshiki's misled image of dancers, people who just brought color and life and laughter to the people and nothing else, that he'd never told him that sometimes Taishi's parents trained him in the steps meant for dodging blunted blades instead of a stage, and look what was valuable to Toshiki now. Funny how things turn out.)

He itched to move and _do_ something, anything that would take his mind off the smell of iron and images of what would happen to the village when the Stellan army came back around. He paced the length of the room for two laps before deciding it wasn't worth the ache or effort and opted instead to drop to the floor and prop himself against a wall to stretch for as long as he could stand it.

"If it weren't for this, I could at least take a walk," he complained to the air, and the resounding silence that followed sank into his skin. He let out a snort and thumped his head against the wood behind him. "Man, I'm not used to being this unpopular."

Eventually he fell asleep after all, and the next thing he knew Kai's good hand was on his shoulder and Kai's voice was saying, just a little questioning, "Miwa."

'Miwa is my troupe, not my name,' Taishi thought, but felt too groggy to say it out loud for what might have been the hundredth time. Kai was staring at him, probably wondering what he was doing on the floor, but this time Taishi figured if Kai really wanted to know, he could use his words.

"What's up?" he yawned, stretching his arms above his head for a moment before carefully maneuvering himself back to his feet while Kai watched. "Time for lunch?" Kai went over to their packs and obligingly tossed him an apple, which Taishi caught and bit into gratefully. Kai tore off a chunk from a loaf of bread for himself (which Taishi suspected was because he'd forgotten about eating before Taishi brought it up, or else he more likely would have left Taishi asleep so he could eat alone).

They ate in silence, while Taishi inwardly marveled with some amusement at how some silences could be so much more agreeable than others. Even after they finished eating and simply sat opposite each other, he didn't mind it at all, and with the help of his post-nap lethargy, for just a short time, he felt a bit more at peace.

Kai kept glancing at him, more and more until he started watching him so closely Taishi half-grinned and asked, "What, something in my teeth?"

Kai stared at him for a solid ten seconds before he said, "Why don't you dance."

"Huh? Seriously?" Kai looked away, which more or less meant 'yes, seriously, and now I'm embarrassed about it.' Taishi curled the toes at the end of his injured leg and let out a helpless laugh, because Kai hadn't forgotten about it, he probably wouldn't asked if Taishi were _fine_, and Taishi stood up because he was going to do it anyway.

He leaned over to pick up his chains and bangles, but was stopped by Kai's voice saying, "You don't need those." And something in Taishi's chest clenched, remembering noiseless, unskilled paired practices from years ago, and he felt trapped by his own need to do anything for his sad, stupid boy of a friend who clung to his own past while trying to run from it.

He straightened up and left his accessories on the floor, and started into a slow turn.

The noise of metal was meant to help keep time, so Taishi rarely even practiced without them anymore, and moving without the clamor in the background felt strange. Between that and his injury, it was a challenge to get started, but his muscles knew the sequence of movement and soon picked up and carried him through it.

"I didn't notice how much you move your hips doing that," commented Kai, and Taishi misstepped so poorly (and _painfully_) he had to stop entirely just to keep his balance.

"Sorry?" He laughed too loud, utterly bewildered. "What? Are you flirting with me?" Kai looked away with a 'tch,' face dusted red, and Taishi couldn't keep himself from snickering more sincerely.

"Come on," he urged, extending a hand. "Don't just leave me to make a fool of myself alone."

Kai glared dully, but took his hand and let Taishi pull him to his feet and into a sudden twirl. Normally it would have been surprising for Kai to act so accommodating, but he got like this every time, like he meant it as some kind of unspoken farewell; Taishi took advantage of it and led him across the room, over every inch of open floor, following the fast-paced rhythm of a festival song as though he were a laughing, celebrating girl instead of a stone-faced runaway prince, committing his flustered look to memory.

And then, because even that didn't quite satisfy him, he set a hand to the back of Kai's neck and pulled him close to say into his ear, "So, what do you think? Spry enough for you to leave behind?"

Kai flinched and pulled forcibly away, and Taishi regretted it more than he'd expected to.

Still, he smiled. "Tomorrow morning, let's head north."


End file.
